Valentine's Day Garland

Happy February! My favorite month, not only because I made my debut into this world on a sweet February 22nd day, but also because it is the month of love! I love decorating for any holiday, but Valentine's is one of my faves! I mean it is  just so cute and fun and who doesn't love hearts, red & pink, and sparkly things! 

To start off the month I decided to make some festive garland. I had most of the materials and the 2 things I didn't I got from the dollar store, so it was a super easy and cheap lil project.

Materials:
Cord String
Large Needle 
Pom Poms (just used 1 bag from the dollar store)
Loose Hearts Table Decor (got these from the dollar store, pretty much just thin foam core sparkly hearts)


After I had all my materials I just strung them all together using the large needle. Wah lah, easy peazy and a super cute result! 

Hope you all had a fun Super Bowl Sunday & Happy Love Month!

 xoxo, Jess

Skull Wreath

OMG...it has been a cray cray week, so I am excited for a weekend to get our place into full HALLOWEEN/FALL effect. Whoop whoop I am pumped for some pumpkin carvin, apple spiced cocktails...and maybe a bonfire. What up Midwest, the Southwest can hang with your Autumn lifestyle too! 

To start the weekend off I have a fun DIY Halloween project to share. A few weeks ago at a Goodwill 50% Off Saturday sale (my favorite day) I found a wreath that was in pretty good shape, a bag of skulls and an impulse buy...a rubber rat. 

Oh how fun does this look right?!?!  So to start, I pulled off all the plastic shit from the wreath, which like I said was in really great condition. 

I know...I debated keeping this pretty lady all natural, but ended up dressing her up in a little black glossy dress. At first I didn't plan on alternating the skulls, but got a bit spray paint happy and decided to make those dead heads silver. 

Welp, loved the silver dead heads...but they had lost all definition...who knew that happens when you become a skeleton. My lil guys need some glam and glitz, which was easily taken care of with some sparkle infused black paint. 

Then came out the guns...the hot glue gun that is. I originally planned on doing a all skull wreath, but I quickly changed my mind when I was like...this is so boring I need some color up in here! Well remember those fake ass flowers I ripped off in the beginning...a few of them made the cut. 

And remember the impulse buy...the rat...she ended up the star of the show! 

See...I told you it would be fun! 

What fun Halloween decor are you all doing? 

xoxo, Jess

Sparkle Pumpkins

I have held out long enough, but now that it is October, and the temp as dropped to under 100 I can officially start FALL & HALLOWEEN decorating! This fall I plan to do some legit decorating, because this is the first year that we live in a single family home rather than an apartment complex for the season...and I am so so so excited to get my craft on for it! 

Fall Decorating Phase 1: Pumpkins Sparkle Pumpkins
I usually do some sort of Sparkle Pumpkins around this time of year, and this year I am starting with some small ones for indoor, but plan on doing some larger ones for the front porch area. 

In the past I have used loose glitter to decorate the small pumpkins, but that gets real messy, even for this glitter lover...I draw the line when it is all up in my throat and eyeballs. This year...sequins! I initially started out hot gluing the sequins on, but that did not work well with the pumpkins waxy surface, so I quickly switched to Elmer's Craft Bond clear dual tip glue pen, which worked great.

I had picked up some roses from Trader Joe's and arranged them into clear vases, added the pumps and a couple gourds and wha lah...sparkly fall centerpiece. Oooohh how I love fall! 

And if you want to add a Halloween-y touch, throw in some skulls...or spiders...or zombie eyeballs....or blood sucking vamp fangs....what ever tickles your halloweeny! 

Happy October & decorating to all! 

xo, Jess

Craft & Cocktail

I love doing crafts & trying new cocktails, so why not do both at the same time...especially on a weekend night. So that is exactly what I did this weekend, I made myself a cocktail(s) and crafted a new set of bookends! 

I had been searching for the perfect set of bookends in the wonderful world of Goodwill & thrift shops for quite some time. Little did I know that a purchase from my recent Goodwill Hunting trip, a ah-hah moment, a can of spray paint, and a melon cocktail later...my search for bookends had ended...no pun intended. 

Here is the how it happened. To my surprise trophies are really easy to take apart. I just took the thing apart unscrewing it with my hands, kept the marble bottom, spray painted the girls red with Krylon Colormaster in Banner Red | Gloss, re-screwed the girls to the marble bottom and called it a day(night) which was needed after a few of those melon cocktails...delicious, but dangerous.

This craft was super easy and I really love the end result. I just love that sometimes you have no idea what you are going to do with a new impulsive GW buy, but create exactly what you had been searching for!  

Cheers to a successful crafts & cocktails night! 

xo, Jess 

Goodwill Hunting

I have an addiction. I am addicted to Goodwill hunting, not the amazing movie, but the store. I get so much joy from visiting the various Goodwill's around the Valley. When I haven't been to a Goodwill in over a week I seriously get withdraws. It is not so much that I just love shopping, because honestly sometimes(rarely) I leave empty handed, but hunting and finding all the little gems that people have given away not knowing the hidden potential they hold.

I would say about half of our home is decorated and furnished with items from Goodwill that I have either re-done or just cleaned up, given some TLC. That is why I love Goodwill, some of the items are either brand-new or just in need of a new paint job. 

The above image is my Goodwill hunting trip last week which was a total score in my book! 

First off all the total of this Goodwill hunting trip was $11.00, after donating $1.00~ BOOM BABY...why does that need a BOOM BABY you ask?!?!? Here are the dets...

• 2 swimming trophies with the potential to be created into something amaze-balls 

• Super-duper cute chicken wire basket with wooden handles...oh.the.posibblities for    decorating in every season/holiday....I can just picture it now, table centerpiece with little pumpkins & gourds for this Fall...ahhh love it!

• 2 brand new bags of Pier 1 Glass Gems, in my favorite warm color palette of golds, endless craft project possibilities and decorating. I already have something in mind that has to do with an ampersand. 

• 5 cute little clear tea-cups...that I have a vision for, just think...chandelier & tea lights. 

• Brand new set of Yarka Professional Artist Natural Hair Brush Set 

• Brand new set of Holbein Artists' Water colors 18 color set. *Side Note: I was a fine arts major,  so I am always looking for great art supplies, and this & the brushes was a great find! 

• Little plastic paint palette that will work perfect for lots of craft/art projects I do

• Not shown in the image, but I got a set of never opened set of 50 Matte White, Textured Note Cards, which I will probably be decorating with my new water color set.

When I came home with the items above my husband said to me "What the F Jess...what the hell are you gonna do with some shitty ass trophies & teacups?!!?"  To be honest I really didn't have a f'in clue, but that is how I work. I get a feeling something has potential, it just hasn't come to me yet, but I know it will be amaze-balls! *Side Note: I did create something awesome over the weekend with the trophies...which you will see in my next post! Boo yah HUBBY! 

Another successful Goodwill hunting trip I'd say & for all those other Goodwill addicts, happy hunting! 

xo, Jess